[Golist] Fuse-like parser in a few minutes!

[Moses Gunesch]

I will do a video tut on this topic soon.

My hope with Go was that the tween layer would typically stay OO in  
nature, then people could build custom parsers to do Fuse syntax, XML  
syntax or anything custom. Well, I gave it a shot and it worked just  
fine! Having labored so long over Fuse myself, it was a little  
shocking how easy this was.

First, I made a general multiple-property tween class that I called  
BlockTweenMG. It has a method setProperty(name:String, value:Number)  
and the constructor simply accepts two arrays like zigoengine used to:  
(target:Object=null, props:Array=null, endVals:Array=null...).  It's  
versatile enough to start with, although it doesn't support filters or  
other fanciness.

Next I created a parser class that I called BlockParserMG with a  
static method called go() and one called sequence(), pluse one private  
static method parseAction() that parses a generic fuse object and  
returns a new BlockTweenMG.

public static function go(action:Object): BlockTweenMG {
     var tween:BlockTweenMG = parseAction(action);
     tween.start();
     return tween;
}

While go() just parses & starts one tween, sequence() will parse any  
number of actions using an open input (...actions). It was easy to  
make it support arrays of objects for parallel tweens like in Fuse. It  
builds & returns a SequenceCA instance.

parseAction() is amazingly lightweight. It makes the tween and loops  
through the properties of the object. It goes, if  
(tween.hasOwnProperty(prop)) then set the prop on the tween... this  
takes care of all the basic tween props: delay, duration, easing, etc.  
Otherwise assume it's a tween prop and use the addProperty() method on  
the tween instance. This was all simply too easy, so I threw in one  
bit of fanciness. Go's SequenceCA class supports Custom-Advance  
options for sequencing so I added a conditional to look for the  
property 'advance' and set it to the current SequenceStepCA.

I ran this sequence and voila, it worked without a hitch!

var targ:Sprite = addSquareSprite();
BlockParserMG.sequence({ target: targ,
                                                 x:200,
                                                 scaleX:5,
                                                 duration:2,
                                                 // custom-advance  
before the action completes:
                                                 advance: new  
OnDurationComplete(.5)
                                                 },

                                               // a parallel-action  
array
                                               [{ target: targ,
                                                  y:200,
                                                  scaleY:5,
                                                  duration:1.5,
                                                  easing:Back.easeOut
                                                 },
                                                 { target: targ,
                                                   rotation:180,
                                                   easing:Back.easeInOut
                                             	}]);

I'll have a tutorial up soon on this, but don't wait... Try this at  
home!

If you're not into Fuse syntax, try inventing your own XML syntax for  
condensing animation code, or surprise us with something totally new.

:)

- m